Sometimes the neatest thing about a piece of memorabilia is the story behind it. All of the old pieces have stories, but often we don't hear the story. We did learn the story on this Lillie Langtry menu.

Lillie Langtry's was a restaurant in the Golden Nugget. The arrow is pointing to the Golden Nugget Porterhouse

My husband found this piece on . It had a $15 shipping charge, not unreasonable since it's wood and had a wooden bracket in the back so that it stands up. Still, we go to the Chicago area pretty often, so we contacted the seller to see if we could pick it up in person. She said yes.

On the appointed day and time, we knocked on the screen door. We heard a man yell "Laura! Your people are here!" "C'mon in folks!" We went in and met Laura, the seller, and her parents. They invited us to sit down and we all chatted about Vegas for awhile. Then Laura gave us the story of the menu....

In the early 70's Laura moved to Las Vegas. I think she was in her early 20's. She had a roommate named Judith, who's motto was "Beer: it's not just for breakfast." Judith was a big woman, 6'1" tall. The girls used to go out to dinner often, and they liked to collect menus and staple them to their kitchen wall. One day they went to Lillie Langtry's, where Laura liked to order Chinese. They saw this menu on the maitre'd stand. After they had eaten, and were leaving, the maitre'd stand was momentarily unattended. It was the '70's, and the girls were wearing ponchos. With Judith's size, it was a simple matter for her to slip the menu under her poncho and keep walking.

Later, Laura got married, then divorced. She had no children, and her work was her life. One morning she woke up and was paralyzed on 1/2 her body. She was diagnosed with MS. The paralysis was cleared up and she was able to work for another year or so. The disease flared up again and she had to quit work and go on disability. She had to move back and live with her parents. She discovered and it gave her something to do as well as a way to earn some extra money. Judith died a year or two ago, she was 46.

The menu was the last of the things Laura had from Vegas, and she was happy that it was going to a home where it would be appreciated.